· The extra investment announced in the Budget by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, will create 35,000 more nurses, 15,000 more doctors, 40 new hospitals and 500 primary care centres by 2008.

· A new commission for healthcare audit and inspection - created from the merger of some existing regulatory bodies - will be created in order to help raise NHS standards. It will be independent of government and the NHS and report annually to parliament. The commission will be run by a new chief inspector of healthcare.

· The most successful primary care trusts and hospital trusts will be given so-called "foundation" status later this year. They will remain part of the NHS but get will receive more freedom from Whitehall to manage local services. They will be able to borrow cash to expand services under a scheme modelled on that being developed by local government.

· The government will legislate to ensure that local authority social services departments bear the cost of patients who are forced to remain undischarged in hospital because there is no social care package in place for them in the community. If departments succeed in reducing bedblocking, they will have the freedom to spend the cash on other services.

· The hospital payment system will switch to "payment by results". Hospitals that treat more patients and cut waiting times will get more cash.

· New contracts of employment with consultants and GPs, aimed at raising productivity and rewarding staff "who do most for the NHS", will be agreed. In future, all NHS national employment contracts will be negotiated by NHS employers rather than the Department of Health.

· The Department of Health will be slimmed down. Capital funds will be allocated in future by a new arm's-length bank, controlled by the NHS.

· Patients will have greater choice over when and where they receive treatment - especially if they are waiting too long. Over the next four years, patients will be given greater rights to switch to hospitals that have shorter waiting times. More use will be made of overseas hospitals and medical expertise.

· "The NHS plan is a 10-year programme" - it will take time to deliver the reforms and improvements but there will be "real and significant improvements in the NHS" by the time of the next election.